The present invention relates to the cooling of electronic equipment.
Present cooling requirements for electronic equipment often necessitate the use of forced convection. Room air is forced through the equipment by a fan and may deposit dust on circuit paths and components. This dust or other contaminants will, for example, reduce the effectiveness of heat transfer and bridge over circuit paths or component leads, resulting in such problems as corrosion, deterioration of reliability, noise and crosstalk. Although filters may be used to minimize the deposition of dust, these, disadvantageously, must be replaced manually on a periodic basis.
Electrostatic precipitators have been used previously to control dust accumulation, although not, to our knowledge, in electronic equipment cooling. Prior art electrostatic precipitators operate by charging the dust particles and then collecting them on a metallic surface. If the collection surfaces are not regularly cleaned, however, the efficiency falls and the requirement that the collection surfaces be cleaned is itself disadvantageous. Manual labor to perform this function is expensive, while the use of mechanical devices to clean the collection surfaces adds to the cost and complexity of the equipment.